♪ you never have to leave your chair ♪ show me team usa. ♪ all of this innovation could lead to some inspiration ♪ ♪ and you might be the next one to represent our nation ♪ ♪ this summer on your tv, tablet, or any screen ♪ ♪ xfinity is here to inspire your biggest dreams ♪ ♪ hello i'm brianna keilar alongside john berman on this "new day." we're facing a health crisis of the unvaccinated as the delta variant puts hospitals under siege. new evidence that americans refusing vaccines may be getting a wakeup call. plus, florida now the worst in the nation as the state breaks its own case record for the entire pandemic. one lawyer describes it as the worst crime any president has committed ever.

new details this morning on how donald trump tried to get his justice department to help overturn the election. and breaking news this morning, a big announcement about simone biles and her future at the olympics after sitting out the last few events. stand by for news. ♪ a very good morning to viewers here in the united states and around the world, it is monday, august 2nd. we're beginning with breaking news that gymnastics superstar simone biles announce shed will participate in tomorrow's balance beam final. usa gymnastics tweeting this we're so excited to confirm you will see two u.s. athletes in the balance beam final tomorrow, suni lee and simone biles. can't wait to watch you both. >> this is going to be something. this announcement comes after

biles pulled out of the team and all around competition citing mental health. this is her final opportunity to secure an individual medal at the tokyo olympics. coy wire live in tokyo with the breaking details. event after event simone biles pulled out of. the last chance to do it and she's going to try, coy. >> huge news, john. it was a day by day evaluation process for team usa. most importantly, for simone biles, determining whether or not she felt well enough to compete in the four individual competitions for which she qualified. but the day before each of those competitions there were statements released saying that she would withdraw. but biles was seen here earlier today in tokyo heading to the gym to watch jade carey compete in the floor exercise. she won gold, by the way. congrats to jade carey. she also cheered on her teammates to individual medals yesterday. it was a waiting game in tokyo. the day before the event, the beam, the last chance we had to

see the goat compete in the games and it's news she will indeed go again. remember, it was on friday that biles revealed now deleted post that she couldn't tell up from down in a practice session here in tokyo. saying she had no idea where she was in the air or how she was going to land. it was a scary, scary video that we saw her post. the 24-year-old said that when she's had the twisties, as she called them in the past, taken two or more weeks for them to go away. not the case now. this is likely the last time we will see biles in olympic competition, so great to see her out there one last time. more importantly, it's great to see and to know that simone biles feels well again. >> coy, i think that is the most important thing. thank you very much for that. this morning, the pandemic of the unvaccinated accelerating. 35 states have seen cases rise by more than 50% since last week. hospitalizations surging, nearly 44,000 americans hospitalized this morning. that's the highest number since april. the good news, in fact, the great news, is that vaccines are

incredibly effective. cdc data shows that 99.99% of the people who are fully vaccinated don't end up in the hospital with covid. 99.99%, that's a lot. and this morning the pace of vaccinations is picking up. the seven-day average is up substantially from three weeks ago. let's go deep into these numbers. with me this morning, cnn senior data reporter harry enten. give a lay of the land. >> seven-day average we're up, right? look at that. we're up from the trough that we were let's say in early july. not quite at the high levels that we were at the end of last year, beginning of this year, but still we're clearly up 100,000 new cases on the seven day new average. look at where those cases are, right? where are they greatest, the red. that's bad. the south, arkansas, louisiana, florida, mississippi and alabama. it's not nearly as bad as -- up in the north, but when you look at the community transmission,

right, it's very high in the south and coming up to the north it's still not great up here, but it's certainly far better in the northeast where we know that there are those higher vaccination levels than it is in the south where you have the lowest vaccination levels. >> again, as we say this is a pandemic of the unvaccinated right now. i gave people a teaser on just how effective the vaccines are, harry. wildly effective. >> they are wildly effective. so there was a new study come out from the cdc through july 26th. look at this. this is among the people who are fully vaccinated. how many have not been hospitalized from covid, over 163 million. how many have not died from covid, over 163 million. put that in percentage terms, greater than 99.996% of folks who are fully vaccinated have not been hospitalized because of covid, did not die from covid. look at that, greater than 99.999% have not died from covid. if you want to understand that that the vaccinations work, look

at these numbers. they work very, very well. >> that's very good news and a good reminder, harry, some people are upset about the breakthrough infections. that's not the real news. the real news. the real news is vaccines keep you out of the hospital. >> new folks getting their first shot is up significantly from july 12th. just getting a little less than 300,000. so we're jumped up by 100,000. the rate jumped up on the daily. that's very, very good news. >> where they're getting them is also interesting at that point, harry. >> it's very interesting. these are the states with the most new weekly cases. most of those states, alabama, arkansas, louisiana, florida, mississippi included all ranked 40th or below for overall first vaccinations. in the last week, look at this, their all in the top ten. so people are scared and therefore they're going out and getting vaccinate and hopefully that will be able to change the

tide in the southeast united states. >> good see people reacting in this way. sorry it's taken this much fear and illness to make it happen. florida, there's an enormous rise in cases and hospitalizations. >> look at this, the average new daily cases, look at that, nearly 16,000. hospitalizations 467 over the past week on the daily. new deaths 58. the weekly change, 45% up. 52% up. 51% up. this is crazy. this is awful. >> right. it's not just cases here. this is people hospitalized, people dying, the numbers are going up there. again, let's hope this turns the corner soon, but we're not seeing it just yet. >> i did this same exact slide last week on another show and the numbers have gotten significantly worse since that point. >> thank you very. we'll see you later. more interesting numbers to look at. brianna? one in five new coronavirus cases are happening in florida. it makes it the new epicenter of the pandemic. averaging over 15,000 new cases a day. and despite this, republican

governor ron desantis has barred masks in schools. overruling local governments, sparking mixed emotions with parents. cnn's rosa flores is live for us in ft. lauderdale with more. things are tough in florida. and masks can keep people safe, especially unvaccinated people like kids, rosa. >> reporter: you know, brianna, you're absolutely right. here we are, the school year is about to begin. and every single metric that you look at here in the state of florida is shooting up. you look at the graphs, they are all increasing. i'm live at an elementary school that once the school year begins will be hustling and bustling with kids. you know what the positivity rate in state of florida for children and teens between the ages of 12 and 19? 22%. >> give me that. >> reporter: this family -- >> swish. >> reporter: and this family --

>> nice. we like it. >> reporter: both have children attending broward county public schools in south florida. one family is for mask mandates in schools. >> i think masks are the best course of action and i think that keeps everyone safe. >> reporter: the other is for masks being optional. >> mandating doesn't seem fair or right. i think best case scenario parents should definitely be given an option. i respect everybody's opinion and choices. >> reporter: it's a debate that erupted into protests here in past week as the number of covid-19 cases in florida jumped to more than 110,000. and the positivity rate among children and teens between the ages of 12 and 19 surpassed 22%. >> did you not get the cdcs memo? i don't see you complying. >> reporter: florida governor ron desantis, long spoken out against mask mandates friday signed an executive order giving parents the choice between masks and no masks.

the move big footed broward county public schools recent decision to require masks in classrooms, leaving families with mixed emotions. >> as a dad, what's that like for the governor to come in and override your school board? >> party of small government, right? it's really disheartening. >> what was your reaction to that? >> relief. and simply for my children and their well being. >> reporter: the debate in florida, playing out across the country. the three largest school districts, new york city, los angeles and chicago will require masks. others reversing course and will now require masks, too. including grin net county, georgia and baltimore county. the debate landing in texas as well. another state where the governor banned mask mandates. >> kids will not be forced by government or by schools to wear masks in school. >> reporter: school boards there holding meetings and major teacher group asking the

governor to reconsider his executive order. >> what we're fearful is that we are going to be in classrooms where we are going to have that student that does get too sick, that does die and it all could have been prevented. >> mom is a superstar. and i'm like, terrible. >> reporter: after spending time with these two broward county families, one thing became clear. >> i think we absolutely have something in common. we want what's best for our children. >> absolutely. we're all united in that way. >> reporter: above all, they love their children. and brianna, there's so much division on masks around the country, but as you saw in that piece, parents, american parents, have so much in common. and i want to leave you with this because broward county schools did send us a statement saying they're reviewing the executive order by governor ron desantis, trying to figure out if they need to make adjustments. >> we'll see what happens there. rosa, thank you so much live

from ft. lauderdale. over the weekend, thousands of israelis over the age of 60 lined up to get a vaccine booster shot. a third shot. this after health officials said the pfizer vaccine data from israel points to waning immunity. the united kingdom is set to launch a booster program starting next mont. cnn elizabeth cohen joins us now. elizabeth, what about the united states? what are experts saying about the possibility of the third shot? >> right. this is not the first time actually. the united states has been a little bit behind in areas related to the vaccines. this is all based on some new pfizer data that shows that immunity, john, it does wane over time. still, a great vaccine, amazing efficacy, but that it does wane over time. so that 96%, that's how effective the vaccine is after a couple of weeks to about two months. when you get down to about four to six months, it's more like 83, 84% effective. that's less but still again an

amazing vaccine. now, let's take a look at this third shot data. so the effectiveness of the third shot, when they gave it to people between the ages of 18 and 55, it increased antibodies by more than 5%. when they gave it to older folks, 65 to 85 it increased antibodies by more than 11 times. so five times, 11 times, this third shot really does seem to do good. it's really jaus matter of time as to when americans will be told, we recommend that you get a third shot. you know, you mentioned israel in the beginning of this so the israelis are giving third shots to 60 and over but also for weeks they've been giving it to people who are immuno compromised. those other folks are really, really vulnerable. two shots didn't work for many of those. i'm hearing everyday from immuno compromised people in the u.s. and millions of them, am i supposed to get a third shot? i could run down to the pharmacy and get one. no one would be the wiser. they are really, really looking for guidance in this area. >> so discussion about the third

shot for some heats up. again, a lot of the focus son getting people who don't have it their first shot but we can have both discussions at the same time. >> right. >> elizabeth cohen, thank you so much. >> thanks. tomorrow a very special edition of "new day" in our 8:00 a.m. hour answering your questions about the new coronavirus surge. tweet your questions to us directly. you can send to brianna or me. either one of us. or tweet them online or send them online at cnn.com coronavirus questions. disturbing new revelations on how far donald trump went in attempts to get the election overturned. and what one lawyer calls the worst crime committed by a president ever. plus, washington, d.c. mayor muriel bowser under fire for something she did after reinstated her mask mandate. lawmakers camp out at the capitol, progressive democrats now blaming their own party for the end of evictions.

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♪ it's the worst crime any president has ever committed. that's what one famed lit gator said about new evidence of former president trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election. trump last december pressured acting attorney general jeffrey rosen to declare that the election was corrupt. that's according to notes of a call trump held with rosen and acting denty attorney general. trump said, quote, just say that the election was corrupt and leave the rest to me and the republican congressman. joining us now, cnn chief legal analyst jeffrey toobin. counselor, those words were from ted. saying it's the worst crime. that's his opinion. how bad is it? or what's the problem with a

sitting president telling the attorney general, the acting attorney general, call it a corrupt election. >> ever since watergate, every white house, democrats and republicans, have had policies in place that say when the white house officials and the justice department talk about individual cases, certain procedures have to be followed because the opportunity for undue influence is so great. this is exactly why these policies are in place. now, those policies are not laws. they are not binding. they are simply norms, rules that all administrations have decided to follow to avoid all sorts of appearances of impropriety. this is the kind of impropriety they're trying to avoid. so it's not a crime what donald trump did, i think. but, it is wildly inappropriate. and you know, good for these jus it is department officials, political appointees for not

following his advice. >> so if it's not a crime, if it wouldn't prompt a criminal investigation, then jeffrey, what is the precedent that it sets for saying whether it is okay to try to interfere in an election? >> well, this sort of sums up the whole trump presidency. it is shocking but not surprising that donald trump violated the norms that were the unspoken rules that everyone had followed. i mean, the problem is that once trump has done this, if other presidents want to do it, it is a precedent that they can follow. and say, look, you know, i'm in charge of the justice department. i can tell them what to do. that's what happened in watergate. and that's what subsequent presidents have tried to avoid. >> i wonder what the implications are going forward because we don't know of any criminal investigation into what donald trump did behind the scenes with the justice department there. we know there is the house

select committee investigation. and there's that phrase, leave it to me and the republican congressman. that seems to implicate these republican congressmen in this scheme to try to overturn the election results. >> i think they were willing participants. the other thing worth remembering about this conversation with the u.s. justice department is that he was doing the same thing in georgia with the georgia officials, saying, say it's corrupt. continue to do the investigation. that is now under investigation criminally in georgia because even if the contacts with the u.s. justice department don't violate any law, it's possible they violate some georgia law. >> top doj officials, jeffrey, said to the president in these notes we've seen, much of the information you're getting is false. and trump responded, you guys may not be following the internet the way i do. what does that tell you? >> well, i mean, i think we all

know the internet is not one source and the internet is a source of -- often of terribly wrong information. but you know, it just shows trump's determination. which of course continues to this day to inject this false narrative. again, what makes this so outrageous is not just that he was violating these procedures. he was doing so in service of lie. the fact that there was something wrong with this election. but, you know, trump continues to do it and he may get elected president in 2022. >> i got to say, acting attorney general, jeffrey rosen, he's got a story to tell. he's got a story to tell, and you got to believe that select committee in the house wants to get him in. >> unlike a lot of justice departments -- a lot of trump administration officials, these people deserve credit for doing the right thing, which was nothing in reaction to what

trump said. >> great to see you, jeffrey toobin. thank you very much. house speaker nancy pelosi calling on the biden administration to take action as millions face potential eviction. a lot of calling on nancy pelosi to take action. plus, huge bipartisan infrastructure bill has been finalized. but can it get through congress before summer recess? when you earn a degree with university of phoenix, we support you with career coaching, including resume building, interview prep, personal branding and more, for your entire career. so if you commit to earning a degree with us, we commit to standing by you until the day you retire. that's career services for life.

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♪ this morning, rent is due for millions of americans after pandemic protections expired over the weekend, leaving many now vulnerable to evictions. a group of progressive democrats led by missouri congresswoman cory bush have been camping out outside the capitol in protest. cnn's lauren fox is live for us at the capitol. this is something that is going

to affect so many americans, lauren. tell us what's happening there on the hill. >> reporter: well, that's right. look, millions of americans could be affected by this eviction moratorium lapsing. and i think one of the struggles up here on capitol hill is that lawmakers just weren't able to do anything. what you're seeing this morning is the scene of college students mostly still left out here from over the weekend. they've been here. you can't sleep on the steps of the capitol, so they literally been staying away by sitting up and trying to just pass the time because they're trying to send a message that this is going to affect millions of people and that it's crucial for congress to act soon. one of the struggles up here is that democrats in the house didn't have the votes to actually pass this. so they left for their recess without doing anything to stop it. so, this is what alexandria ocasio-cortez a progressive from new york said about the fact they couldn't do anything before they left for the recess. >> house and house leadership

had the opportunity to vote to extend the moratorium. and there were many and frankly a handful of conservative democrats in the house that threatened to get on the planes rather than hold this vote. we cannot in good faith blame the republican party when house democrats have the majority in the party. >> reporter: house democrats did try to bring some kind of unanimous consent agreement to the floor to try to pass this, but it wasn't enough. republicans blocked it. that of course is one of the obstacles that they're facing up here. meantime, house speaker nancy pelosi is calling for the administration to take executive action but the problem with that is the administration is arguing the supreme court would block that action given the fact this was just supposed to be a temporary extension of the eviction moratorium. you're seeing up here nows there really a emphasis make sure the rental assistance that went out through covid relief gets to the hands of people who need it

because one of the struggles has been getting that money to people who are in need only just a fraction of it has actually gone out, brianna. >> i'll take it, lauren. there's other that bipartisan agreement, they wrote it down, there's a text to this now. what does that mean and where does git go from here? >> reporter: well, it took all weekend and lot of work from staff and floor staff you are here at the u.s. senate over the weekend. yes, there is final legislate i have texts. there's $550 billion in new spending on roads and bridges, on trains and airports. it's crucial for the american infrastructure, democrats and republicans are arguing, but they have a long amendment process ahead of them. that could take several days potentially even into next weekend. the goal is to finish it up by thursday night. but given the fact it took them three days to finish this legislative text they thought

would be out on friday morning who knows if they'll be able to accomplish that goal. brianna? >> all right, lauren fox, live from the capitol. thank you. simone biles announcing she will make one last appearance at the olympic games. we're live in tokyo. plus, the mayor of washington, d.c. under scrutiny after reporters snapped this photo of her over the weekend. we'll explain next. i'm really nervous. i don't know what i should wear. just wear something not too crazy, remember it's a business dinner not a costume party. on a spotty network this is what she heard... just wear something crazy, remember it's a costume party. a costume party!? yes!

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masks inside in many venues. kristen holmes with us this morning to walk us through this. kristen, tell us what she did, what the rules are and either way the optics here are terrible. >> that's right, brianna. that's the number one point, the optics are horrible. just to give you a brief timeline, on thursday mayor bowser announces there's going to be this mask mandate in place on saturday. then we see these images of the mayor with dave chappelle, the median, maskless from friday night, yes. the mask mandate is not in place, however, starting to get some push back there from critics who are saying how seriously are you actually taking this. mask mandate goes into place on saturday at 5:00 a.m. and then this photo emerges. you can see bowser in this photo sitting among a group of guests. she does not have a mask on. it looks like quite a few people here. so we have heard from a source who was at the wedding as well as from her office that she officiating this wedding and that part the ceremony was outside. but of course this photo was not

taken outside. we can tell clearly from it. this is what her office says about the photos. they say the mayor wore a mask indoors in compliance with the mask mandate. and the organizers and venue staff worked to create a safe environment for the staff and guests. if mayor bowser was photographed without a mask, it was during the indoor dinner when she was eating or drinking. so, to be clear, i did talk to a guest who was at the wedding who said they saw mayor bowser several times wearing a mask inside. and that this photo was taken during the toast. so likely a time when people were raising their glass to drink. but again, the optics here are really bad. this is a leader who instituted this mask mandate, which by the way i don't know if you know anyone, i don't know a single soul who enjoys wearing a mask. >> no i don't enjoy it. we do it to keep each other and others safe. it appears this leader cannot follow her own rules. that makes it harder for any of us to follow the rules and

particularly hard for those trying to enforce it. >> the spirit as well of what she's trying to do. do you know how many people were at the wedding by chance? >> there were reports it was quite a few in the hundreds. that is inaccurate. from the guests who attended, they said it was a smaller wedding. so not that large, large number but still a larger group of people. we can see just from that photo, it wasn't just ten people. so, quite a few people. again, indoors maskless in this photo. >> the question is does the mayor want all of her constituents, gathered indoors just for the toast, even just for the eating portion not wearing a mask? the virus doesn't discriminate between whether you're eating or drinking or you're sitting there watching a toast or just talking to people. so, is that what she wants for everyone? >> exactly. or if the staff and venue were keeping people safe, as we know, there have been a lot of rules in place and people are still getting sick from the delta variant. the mask mandate is meant to protect from that. >> kristen, thank you so much for that report. here is the thing, right,

she wasn't actually as far as we know violating the new rules, correct? >> i think that is fair to say, but i think it might also be is she violating the spirit of it. i don't know, what do you think? >> well, it's hard for me to remember what we're all supposed to be angry about because it wasn't that longer ago we were criticizing politicians for wearing masks still where the science was telling them, oh, they didn't need to be. we kept on asking the white house, why is joe biden still wearing the mask when the mask guidance has changed. and now of course, we're saying she should be wearing a mask even though she was still following the guidance. look, i get it. if you're a politician, you don't want a picture that raises questions. that's bad politics. the question is, whether or not she did anything functionally policy wise wrong. and i don't know. i mean, i guess it really depends on if she was eating or drinking at the time she was photographed not wearing a mask. >> yeah. i look at the photo and i see -- it seems like it could be during the toast. right? everyone's heads are pointed in

a certain direction. it seems like maybe they are listening to someone is what it appears to me. i do wonder for a politician like mayor bowser if it's just better to, you know, ere on the side of being conservative when it comes to mask use considering her constituency here in d.c. and that, you know, d.c. actually is qualifying as a bit of a hot spot right now, bit of accelerated case load. >> i get it. politicians were ering on side of conservative they were criticized. bottom line is let's get poeopl healthy. >> definitely. are vaccine mandates the answer to that? or could it backfire? we'll debate that. frustrationdiplomats. cnn's brand new reporting on the havana syndrome next.

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maintain healthy blood pressure with a custom blend of ingredients. i'm taking charge, with garlique. ♪ as stricter covid rules and mandates return, frustration is building, especially among those who did their part and got vaccinated. but would a national vaccine mandate help or would it hurt efforts to combat vaccine hesitancy? let's talk about this now with a professor of political science at fordham university who says that vaccine mandates will backfire and dr. lena nguyen a cnn medical analyst who says that vaccine mandates can't come soon enough. her new book a lifeline fight for public health. that's out now. nicholas, to you first, you say no. this is a bad idea. tell us why. >> i think that vaccine mandates

can work in the sense that they get people to get vaccinated immediately. so, in france the president said there would be tighter restrictions on those who weren't vaccinated and 1 million people registered for vaccines in one day. yet there were huge protests across france, 200,000 people marched in paris. and one of the interesting things about what you saw in paris is that a lot of the people who were marching were vaccinated. and they were all across the political spectrum. so, part of the reason that taylor doddson and i wrote the op-ed in the washington post was to say, listen, you might get this victory right now, but there's going to be this incredible backlash that will make it much harder to generate support for future public health measures or other political endeavors. >> dr. ngwen, what do you think? >> by that logic we wouldn't have laws for anything. that's controversial.

i mean, we have laws against drunk driving as an example because we say you have the right to drink if you want to, but if you want to get behind the wheel of a car and endanger other people, we as a society, cannot allow that. and we should see vaccination against this deadly see to be the same and put covid immunizations the same way we talk about other vaccinations as well. we mandate childhood vaccinations. if we did not do that, then we might still have polio, smallpox and other illnesses now. the other thing, too, we know that vaccine requirements they work. when they are announced, for example, in hospitals. when they are now being implemented in colleges. there were a lot of people in that middle category. they're not dug in. they're not anti-vaxxers. they're people who may not think about the urgencyover getting the vaccine, who when a requirement is in place will be nudged over into the direction of actually getting the vaccine. so i think they work. and it's really important for us

to have vaccine requirements to protect health and safety. >> nicholas, what do you say about that? the kaiser family foundation has been surveying people how they feel about vaccines and they found that consistently they have seen about 20% of americans who are resistant to getting a vaccine but about a third said, hey, if it were required i would go ahead and get it. so why not go for a mandate that would deliver several percentage points of people getting vaccinated? that would be millions of people. >> yeah. i find it really fascinating to look at the kaiser family foundation data. i think that dr. wen is correct that mandates would nudge some people over the line, right, that that would be sort of the push they needed to get to do it. and yet, when you look at the data, there are a sizable percentage of basically every demographic that is just no. do not tell me to do it. and when you look at things like parents, i believe about 50% of parents are not in the category

of mandate vaccines for kids, this vaccine in school. i think one interesting thing is you see about 50% of people are okay with employers mandating vaccine, but that number drops for their own employer. and i think people realize up close that there would be severe consequences if all of a sudden all your friends start getting either fired or getting a medical procedure that they didn't want. so, i mean, i'm conceding that dr. wen's point that a mandate would get more people to get the vaccine. i'm encouraging people think ahead. what's going to happen to our country when you're forcing lots of people, 90 million americans who are eligible for a vaccine have not received the vaccine. some will be easy to push over the line. some will be really hard and that battle is going to be ugly. >> so then what is it then, nicholas? persuasion? >> i mean, you got to trust the process. we have a constitution. we have a federal system where

the president can do certain things. governors can do certain things. communities can do certain things. i mean, when biden uses encouragement or publicity or pays for vaccines, that's within his realm of power. i think if he says some people have been saying you need to show a vaccine proof to get on a plane or to get on an amtrak train or to enter a federal building, for me that crosses the line. you got to -- democracies require democratic means. if you're basically saying citizens can't enter government buildings unless they get this medical procedure, that goes against a lot of o our traditions. may be legal but goes against a lot of our value nbl traditions. >> what do you say to that, dr. wen? >> i say that i have two young unvaccinated children as do you and many other people. i see it also as our duty as a society to protect those who need our protection. individuals who are immuno compromised and individuals who cannot get the vaccine for some

reason, as a society we have to step up and say what are our values. are we valuing the individual choice of some to not get vaccinated? or are we saying they could potentially carry a dangerous disease that's highly transmissible? are we okay with our children and those who are immuno compromised just getting infected because we're not valuing them? i would also say that, again, we have to look at this vaccine the way that we look at other vaccines. we do have a tradition of requiring vaccines for other illnesses. i'll tell you when i was the health commissioner in baltimore, every year at the beginning of the year we had thousands of families who had not vaccinated their children. they were not dug in. they're not anti-vaxxers. there were access issues didn't know it was so important, didn't get around to it, having the mandate in place was really important to get them to be vaccinated and should talk about the covid vaccine the same way we do all other childhood immunizations. >> this is the debate that's

going on right now especially as we have learned the new things that we know about the delta variant. and it's so important that we have this discussion. professor, doctor, thank you to both of you. >> thank you. ahead, kevin mccarthy joked that he would like to hit nancy pelosi with the speaker's gavel once republicans take back power in the house. plus, olympic sprinter in limbo, refusing to go back to her country fearing that she'll be put in jail. hear why. with university of phoenix, we support you with career coaching, including resume building, interview prep, personal branding and more, for your entire career. so if you commit to earning a degree with h us, we commit to stananding by you until the day you retire. that's career services for life. find out more about our commitment at phoenix.edu.

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♪ new cnn reporting this morning about growing frustration among rank and file staffers and diplomats within the state department over what multiple officials say has been a tep pid response to mysterious cases of havana syndrome. kylie atwood is with us. it's fascinating because it's hard to understand what is going on here.

what we know some staffers are accusing tony blinken of taking a hands-off approach. >> yes. as we've reported on these increased number of diplomats and number of intelligence officials who have been sickened by this havana syndrome, you find folks at the state department kind of frustrated, saying what the heck. we're learning about this through the news but not through our own department leadership. what they want to know are the location and numbers of people that are coming down with this havana syndrome. that is a pronounced frustration amongst those who have children, right? because they're thinking about serving in some of these locations. they don't want to put themselves in harms way. they really don't want to put their children in harms way. i spoke with two diplomats who decided not to apply for jobs in vee jenna and berlin because they herd there had been some of these incidents there. this whisper campaign is happening at the department to try to figure out if a spot is open because there's someone who had to leave that post for an

emergency medical reason. and what this boils down to is leadership at the department. so as you said, there's frustration with the secretary of state who said he was going to prioritize this, the department says he is prioritizing this but he hasn't met with any of those who have been impacted by this syndrome since he became secretary of state earlier this year and that stands in stark contrast to what we have seen by the cia director, bill burns met with those who have been impacted, visited walter reed where they are getting their medical attention. so there's just kind of a lot of frustration. i think the important thing to note is that the department at one point was actually sharing some of this basic information. there's certain medical information they can't share. their hands are a bit tied, but they were sharing information about the number of people that were impacted in cuba and china and so the department folks really want a return to that basic sharing of information. >> why do these parents who are also diplomats why are we

concerned? we heard the report that families have been affected specifically a child who has been in a car with someone. this is a real concern. they have reason to worry. i want to ask you about a program for refugees the state department just introduced for afghan interpreters. tens of thousands of them and family members who are trying to escape taliban threat. >> yeah. so, what the state department is doing is recognizing as there are more afghans who want to apply to be refugees in the u.s. and they acknowledge that's happening because there's an increased violence by the taliban in the country. so what they're doing with this new program that they announced today is expanding the number of folks that can apply. so if they worked for u.s. non-government organizations. if they worked for u.s.-based media companies. if they worked at the embassy but didn't meet the eligibility requirement for another visa program that's already in place, this is an expansion of the refugee application process for these afghans. it's going to be incredibly welcome news. i can tell you by those on the

ground who are scared for their lives frankly. they know that the taliban is targeting them. i talked to some of them last week. some of them were worried that they wouldn't be accepted to the programs with the certain restrictions that are in place. so this expands some of those who can apply. >> yeah. they have reason to be scared as well. kylie, thank you so much for that reporting. and "new day" continues right now. ♪ i'm john berman with brianna keilar on this "new day." the crisis of the unvaccinated takes a new turn as hospitals fall victim to the refusals by many to get the shot. plus, can employers and governments mandate that you take the vaccine? we'll have legal answers to they head. donald trump alternate universe as his former chief of staff says the cabinet is meeting together for something big. and kevin mccarthy making jokes about assaulting nancy pelosi with the speaker's gavel once the republican part